Video cameras have been used for many years to monitor areas and provide security. The video cameras provide video information that may be stored and played back at a later time. Radio receivers and transmitters have also been used for many years to identify personnel and objects in a particular area. For example, many systems are known for attaching radio tags to items such as company assets. When assets equipped with radio tags enter a certain area, the assets are automatically identified, helping to provide security. Innumerable other applications for such radio tag systems have also been identified. The radio tags generally transmit one or more forms of character-based information such as, for example, ASCII character data.
Typical systems that process video and character-based information usually record all video and character-based information detected in a particular area for a given time period. The video information and the character-based information are also often stored separately.
A problem with this approach is that it generates a large amount of data that must be stored. Each video image requires storage space in a storage device, and a large number of images may be collected in a short period of time. When multiple video cameras are used in a system, the amount of storage space needed for the images grows even more. Another problem with this approach is that the system often does not integrate the video and character-based information. The video and character-based information are usually stored separately and remain separate.